Technical Field
This invention relates to a self-supporting curved staircase having a tetrahedral support structure.
State of the Art
Buildings all over the world incorporate spiral or curved staircases for their space savings and aesthetic appeal. However, spiral staircases often require a central column for support which makes them look like the scaffolding to build the stair was left in place.
While there are spiral or curved staircases that do not require a central column, these large double helix stairs are very expensive to build due to very heavy structural elements. Alternatively, they are often built using a curved wall for support.
A more natural light weight structure which imitates to some degree structures found in nature or crystals is a better solution. With the ability of bigger and faster computers, highly redundant structures as here proposed are able to be analyzed to meet building codes for strength and earthquake resistance that could not have been analyzed effectively even 40 years ago.
While there are many patents for circular staircases, most of them are similar to U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,176 issued to Donald R. H. Mackay, entitled Spiral Staircases and which discloses a spiral staircase having a rod through the center of the spiral in order to support the stairs.
Additional patents disclose self-supporting spiral or curved staircases, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,480 issued to Scott A. Turner, entitled Modular Staircase. While this patent discloses, a self-supporting staircase, its design is very bulky and unattractive.
Accordingly, what is needed is a self-supporting curved staircase that is strong and aesthetically pleasing.